| Topic: |
Religions > Bible |
| User: |
"know buddee" |
| Date: |
31 Aug 2004 07:55:32 AM |
| Object: |
America's Disease is Greed |
America's Disease is Greed
by Andrew Greeley
The most serious spiritual problem in the country today is reckless
and untrammeled greed. Greed caused the disgraceful corporate scandals
that fill our newspapers. Greed is responsible for crooked cops and
crooked politicians. Greed causes the constant efforts to destroy
unions that protect basic worker rights.
Greed has produced rash tax cuts that have given money to the rich and
in effect taken it away from the poor. Greed has led to the
immigration policy in which hundreds of poor men and women die every
year as they struggle across the desert for the jobs that el norte
promises them. Greed accounts for the efforts to take profitability
out of the pensions and health insurance of working men and women.
Greed is responsible for the fact that so many Americans have no
health insurance and the fact that the recent reform of Medicare was a
fraud. Greed causes newspapers to overestimate their circulation.
Greed is responsible for the obscene salaries of CEOs. In the '90s the
ratio of CEO compensation to average workers' compensation was 250 to
1, meaning that the boss earned on his first day of work during a year
as much as the worker did in a whole year. In European countries the
ratio is closer to 100 to 1. Recent estimates put the current ratio at
500 to 1 -- the boss makes as much before lunch as the worker does all
year. Greed is the cause of the high wages paid to the bosses even if
the company is failing.
Greed is responsible for the endless stress and ruthless competition
of the workplace and the strains and tensions of professional class
marriages. Greed (in this instance another name for relentless
ambition) explains much of the cheating on college campuses. Greed is
responsible for outsourcing, which is incapable of comprehending that
the employees who lose their jobs are also the consumers who sustain
the economy. Greed generates the reckless ventures that in part caused
the bubble of the late '90s. Greed causes expensive wars that shatter
the budget. Greed is the reason that only the wealthy are benefitting
so far from the economic upturn that is allegedly happening. Greed
drives loan sharks. Greed is responsible for the success of big box
stores that tax the poor with low wages to provide bargains for
affluent suburban shoppers. Greed is the reason poor white
Appalachians, poor African Americans and poor Native Americans must
fight the wars that the wealthy start. Jessica Lynch joined the Army
so she could go to college. Her Native American roommate, killed in
action, joined so, single mother that she was, she could support her
children. Greed is the reason why the country is being run by those
whom the president has described, however inelegantly, as the ''haves
and the have mores.''
No one said during the bizarre deification of President Reagan that he
taught us that greed is good and that we should feel good about our
greedy country. Greed is the reason that the country is being run by
the insurance, pharmaceutical, weapons and petroleum industries. Greed
causes worldwide sex slavery of women and children.
Greed drives the murders of the narcotics world. Greed is responsible
for the exploitations of teen sports stars by colleges and for the
mess in the pro sports world. It is also the cause of the use of
performance drugs by young athletes. Greed is responsible for the bad
advice lawyers gave the Church years ago to beat victims of sexual
abuse into the ground. It is behind the scam artists who steal from
the elderly.
Greed may have been a more serious problem for Americans, say, in the
era of the robber barons. But the Garys and the Morgans and the
Carnegies were a small bunch of men. Now their greed has seeped down
to a much larger segment of the population.
The Catholic Church speaks of four sins that cry to heaven for
vengeance. Two are cheating workers out of wages and exploiting widows
and children. Both happen every day in our greedy country.
Ambition is not evil within limits. The struggle for success is not
bad within limits. Hard work and fair rewards are good within limits.
It is not good to take from the poor and give to the rich, and that's
exactly what this country is doing today.
Don't let anyone tell you that lust is the most deadly of the deadly
sins.
===========
Published on Friday, August 20, 2004 by the Chicago Sun Times
and by CommonDreams:
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0820-09.htm
-------------
Good source for progressive news and views:
http://www.commondreams.org
-------------
"Man must change or die. There is no other course."
The World Teacher
http://www.share-international.org
.
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| User: "Johnny Pollplummet" |
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| Title: Re: America's Disease is the Democrat Party |
31 Aug 2004 08:10:42 AM |
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"know buddee" <know_buddee@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:52d3f97e.0408310455.6d5c69a@posting.google.com...
Greed has produced rash tax cuts that have given money to the rich and
in effect taken it away from the poor.
Nice try, demmie, but the money doesn't belong to the government in the
first place.
Go peddle your Socialist Theory somewhere else, Mr. Democrat - America is
tired of hearing it.
.
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| User: "Grain of Sand" |
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| Title: Re: America's Disease is the Democrat Party |
31 Aug 2004 09:20:11 AM |
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In article <mN_Yc.3546$w%6.1252@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net>,
"Johnny Pollplummet" <NoKerryNoWay!@KeepAmericaStrong.com> wrote:
"know buddee" <know_buddee@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:52d3f97e.0408310455.6d5c69a@posting.google.com...
Greed has produced rash tax cuts that have given money to the rich and
in effect taken it away from the poor.
Nice try, demmie, but the money doesn't belong to the government in the
first place.
Go peddle your Socialist Theory somewhere else, Mr. Democrat - America is
tired of hearing it.
Who do the roads belong to?
--
" Victory breeds hatred. The defeated live in pain. Happily
the peaceful live, giving up victory and defeat." - Dhammapada
http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/sbe10/
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| User: "Johnny Pollplummet" |
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| Title: Re: America's Disease is the Democrat Party |
31 Aug 2004 09:27:14 AM |
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"Grain of Sand" <noone@nowhere.net> wrote in message
news:noone-996A4B.10201131082004@news1-ge0.southeast.rr.com...
In article <mN_Yc.3546$w%6.1252@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net>,
"Johnny Pollplummet" <NoKerryNoWay!@KeepAmericaStrong.com> wrote:
"know buddee" <know_buddee@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:52d3f97e.0408310455.6d5c69a@posting.google.com...
Greed has produced rash tax cuts that have given money to the rich and
in effect taken it away from the poor.
Nice try, demmie, but the money doesn't belong to the government in the
first place.
Go peddle your Socialist Theory somewhere else, Mr. Democrat - America
is
tired of hearing it.
Who do the roads belong to?
Beats me, but we were talking about "giving money", not "giving pieces of
asphalt".
Next question?
.
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| User: "Grain of Sand" |
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| Title: Re: America's Disease is the Democrat Party |
31 Aug 2004 05:15:39 PM |
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In article <6V%Yc.3598$w%6.2999@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net>,
"Johnny Pollplummet" <NoKerryNoWay!@KeepAmericaStrong.com> wrote:
"Grain of Sand" <noone@nowhere.net> wrote in message
news:noone-996A4B.10201131082004@news1-ge0.southeast.rr.com...
In article <mN_Yc.3546$w%6.1252@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net>,
"Johnny Pollplummet" <NoKerryNoWay!@KeepAmericaStrong.com> wrote:
"know buddee" <know_buddee@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:52d3f97e.0408310455.6d5c69a@posting.google.com...
Greed has produced rash tax cuts that have given money to the rich and
in effect taken it away from the poor.
Nice try, demmie, but the money doesn't belong to the government in the
first place.
Go peddle your Socialist Theory somewhere else, Mr. Democrat - America
is
tired of hearing it.
Who do the roads belong to?
Beats me, but we were talking about "giving money", not "giving pieces of
asphalt".
Next question?
How does one buy asphalt? Aren't the roads "given" to people?
--
" Victory breeds hatred. The defeated live in pain. Happily
the peaceful live, giving up victory and defeat." - Dhammapada
http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/sbe10/
.
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: America's Disease is the Democrat Party |
31 Aug 2004 09:46:08 AM |
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On Tue, 31 Aug 2004 14:27:14 GMT, "Johnny Pollplummet"
<NoKerryNoWay!@KeepAmericaStrong.com> wrote:
"Grain of Sand" <noone@nowhere.net> wrote in message
news:noone-996A4B.10201131082004@news1-ge0.southeast.rr.com...
In article <mN_Yc.3546$w%6.1252@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net>,
"Johnny Pollplummet" <NoKerryNoWay!@KeepAmericaStrong.com> wrote:
"know buddee" <know_buddee@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:52d3f97e.0408310455.6d5c69a@posting.google.com...
Greed has produced rash tax cuts that have given money to the rich and
in effect taken it away from the poor.
Nice try, demmie, but the money doesn't belong to the government in the
first place.
Go peddle your Socialist Theory somewhere else, Mr. Democrat - America
is
tired of hearing it.
Who do the roads belong to?
Beats me, but we were talking about "giving money", not "giving pieces of
asphalt".
LOL ! Just money. Goods and services don't count in the tiny widdle
mind of the conservative.
Next question?
Have you always been this stupid?
Hal
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| User: "cLIeNUX user" |
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| Title: Re: America's Disease is Greed |
31 Aug 2004 08:02:27 AM |
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America's Disease is Greed
by Andrew Greeley
The most serious spiritual problem in the country today is reckless
and untrammeled greed.
Skull and Bones is the First Church of Greed, and GHW Bush is the Grand
Wizard.
I'm Rick Hohensee, and I created this message... @$%*%*%$$@*@$*@*@###*
##############*
##*##########
__Y_Y_______Y_____ ###*#####*##
| | **#*#*#***
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| s | #*##*#*#*#
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| XXXX |
1 | |
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| | #########
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H_ | #############################
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"The Vision Thing", original ASCII-art by
Rick (Richard Allen) Hohensee
independant candidate for President
ftp://linux01.gwdg.de/pub/cLIeNUX/interim/platform
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| User: "Anders Lindman" |
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| Title: Re: America's Disease is Greed |
02 Sep 2004 07:39:21 AM |
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(know buddee) wrote in message news:<52d3f97e.0408310455.6d5c69a@posting.google.com>...
America's Disease is Greed
by Andrew Greeley
<snip>
Greed comes from a sense of inferiority, and the basic problem with
the Unites States of America is that this country has such a
cumbersome name! If we say 'America' then that means Canada, Mexica
and Argentina as well. We could say U.S. or U.S.A, but even though
these are short names, they are not real names, but abbreviations.
The President of the United States of America, should be ashamed when
saying: "God bless America" without including Canada in his or her
heart.
Hehehe. ;-)
/AL
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| User: "BG" |
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| Title: Re: America's Disease is Greed |
31 Aug 2004 08:00:18 AM |
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From each according to his capabilities, to each according to his needs.
Utopia. USSR, Red China, East Berlin, Romania, Cuba, Cambodia. Governments
that promise the world and turn on and slaughter citizenry in the tens of
millions. From each according to his capabilities, to each according to his
needs.
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| User: "Rob R. Baron" |
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| Title: Re: America's Disease is Greed |
31 Aug 2004 08:07:33 AM |
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On 31 Aug 2004 05:55:32 -0700, (know buddee)
wrote:
America's Disease is Greed
by Andrew Greeley
"Greed is good." --Gordon Gecko
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